An information handling system (IHS) may include a processor for processing, handling, communicating or otherwise manipulating information. Modern IHSs often include integrated circuits (ICs) that incorporate several components integrated together on a common semiconductor die. Some IHSs operate as test systems that evaluate the functionality and performance characteristics of IC designs during the development process of the IC. A typical IC development process employs early design specifications that may include stringent requirements relating to the overall speed and throughput of the IC or other performance requirements. For example, a design requirement of a particular IC may demand that the IC functions without failure at a predetermined clock frequency. In another example, an IC design requirement may specify that a particular IC must execute standard test application sampling software to precise performance specifications.
With often stringent requirements on IC design performance, designers must develop extensive test strategies early in the IC development process. It is very common to apply these test strategies before the physical IC design hardware is complete. Designers develop computer or IC design models and test various parameters of the IC in a test simulation. The more detailed or accurate the IC design model for simulation, the more accurate the testing results become. However, more detailed IC models result in longer test application software execution times during testing.
Test strategies may involve extensive testing with large test application software in a simulation environment. Test application software is the software that test systems execute to test parameters of the IC design. This test application software may include large numbers of instructions that often number in the trillions. Due to the large number of instructions in these applications, it may not be feasible to run or execute a test application software program on an IC design model and still evaluate results in a timely manner. Hours of a typical test application software program execution in a real world processor may correspond to months of execution time on an IC design model within a simulator.
What is needed is a testing method and apparatus that addresses the problems faced by integrated circuit IC designers described above.